"Michelangelo’s First Painting" Exhibition

This event has ended.

Michelangelo’s biographers wrote that his first painting copied a well-known engraving by the German artist Martin Schongauer (1448–1491). Made in about 1487–88, The Torment of Saint Anthony has been known for many years, although it has not always received proper attention due to accumulations of discolored varnish and disfiguring overpaints, which obscured the qualities of the picture’s masterful execution and remarkable color palette. Michelangelo’s First Painting will showcase recent technical examination and scholarly analysis by the Metropolitan Museum’s conservators and curators that identify the painting as the one described by Michelangelo’s biographers. In addition to The Torment of Saint Anthony, works from the Metropolitan Museum’s collection will include Portrait of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra (1509–1566) and a facsimile of the Schongauer engraving, Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons. The painting was acquired recently by the Kimbell Art Museum, where it will return this fall for display as part of its permanent collection.